Sean and George on Kurrinda’s Story and the Spring Racing Season

0:00 Why Sean wanted to start a podcast

George 0:00 Welcome to our first ever podcast, Off N Racing, presented here by Kurrinda Bloodstock. I'm George Sexton, and I'm joined here by our Bloodstock manager, Sean Driver. Sean, mate, why did you always want to do this podcast? You were always rambling on about it to me, and other than give me something to do and more work.

Sean 0:21 Sean, welcome. I just wanted to give people, I guess, to have the access of, I guess, the public to another avenue of what we do, what other people do, what our trainers do, just everyone in general. It's not about horse racing. It's going to be about life and might be, you know, very positive things that people do, and then we'll hit some harder topics and then the struggles with certain things. I just want to do everything in, around, above, out, down of racing, and then with life as well. It's just very important to relate to people that, look, we all do have lives. Yes, we're a horse racing syndicator, but look, we all have a life as well. And I think people will be able to connect with people better that way.

George 1:06 Yeah, and podcasts seem to be like the way it's going now, isn't it? Everyone will chuck one on when they're at the gym or in the car or cleaning the house, whatever it be. You won't clean the house too much.

Sean 1:16 No, that's definitely a negative. But no, it's just interactive, isn't it? It's just, it's so much more, it's just relevant. It's the way things are going and why not? We'll jump on the bandwagon.

George 1:27 Yeah, you've got to get with the times, don't you? Yeah. So, I mean, we'll just give our listeners a bit of a little intro into like who we are and what we do. We're not just two idiots sitting here talking crap.

Sean 1:39 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just the history of us and…

George 1:42 Yeah, we're in the blood sack, so…

1:45 Sean's family history in racing

Sean 1:45 Well, I guess it all started with, I'm 36 and look, I've been in the industry since I could crawl, but look, my grandfather obviously got me into the industry and my first memory was probably realistically, like when I was probably five. I was always around horses before then, but I can start to remember the horses around five and, you know, 1991, 92, I could sense that obviously that's what my grandfather was into and because there was just horses left, right and centre. And then probably 1994, we had our… or he had his first big winner, Chamskay, we won the Prime Television Cup at Tamworth and back then it was a $100,000 race and it might not sound like a lot of prize money, but it's a long time ago and it was a lot of prize money. Paul Fowley rode the horse and that's when my grandfather bought our farm, 670 acres out at Gungor we had and it just snowballed from there. Now, I won't get bored people too much, but from having nothing to standing three stallions, free flyer, Sonny Gildoran, youthful legs to having 188 horses on the property, it was quite a big business. And then we had a lot of success with some good horses, winning some nice group races, enlisted races, stakes races and horses like Adina and Corral Boy and I won't go on and on, but yeah, we had great success and then he unfortunately passed probably eight, nine years ago now. And it was probably an opportunity that one of our stallions died the same week and another one wasn't performing well and another one was unwell with arthritis. So it was with that, a lot of our broodmares, we sort of bred 28 to 30 a week, a year, sorry. We had about 28 to 30 broodmares a year that we bred from and probably half of those either weren't throwing what we wanted to anymore and they were getting a bit older or… So it was just really good timing. Look, if we're going to step away, have a couple of years off, this is the time to do it. That's what we did. And we had that probably three year period or so away. And when we got back in, we just, we bought our own little farm of 40 acres and we thought syndication was the future, which I believe it is. And we got licensed. We were a registered syndicator now. And basically I still have the mentality of what we used to do. So I think that's why we're so different to the ordinary syndicator. Horses come first, the animals come first.

George 4:42 When you say we, it was you and your partner, Genevieve.

4:46 Gen, George and Shane at Kurrinda

Sean 4:46 Yeah, my wife, Jen, yeah, like she's been a, or she's a solicitor for the last sort of 14, 15 years. So it was a bit of a no brainer that with her background legislation wise and all the rules of racing and how we're governed by ASIC and racing Australia, racing New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, wherever it may be. I think it's very important to know the ins and outs that way. And, and Jen, that's her specialty. And I don't try and begin to know what I'm talking about when it comes to that. So I just stick to the horses and we work well. And obviously now we've got yourself, you know, blood, assistant bloodstock manager and clients relations manager. We've got Shane. He's our farm manager that lives on the farm full time now. And, uh, the business is growing really well, uh, not too rapid. It's growing at a nice pace and, uh, the future looks bright. And I think when you've had 188 horses to manage, which that was my job for my pop, uh, my grandfather, it's, it's quite easy to manage the horses we've got now, but things have changed a lot as well. So, um, yeah, we do things a lot differently. I saw what to do and what not to do, uh, when we ran out or when my pop had his business, uh, when I worked for him, uh, a lot of things that I wanted to change that, uh, you know, what old people like, they get in their, um, in their ways and they don't listen.

6:14 Looking after retired horses

George 6:14 And, um, and he had obviously a lot of sentimental value for those horses. And now you said he had a lot of broodmares that he just kept along. Yeah.

Sean 6:22 And I, I wanted, I wanted to either retire the broodmares or, um, or, you know, give them to younger kids that want to learn, you know, how to ride horses or, or use them as nanny mares or whatever it may be. Um, because all of our horses stayed with us, whether they retired or whatnot.

George 6:38 So, um, but we still have Corral boy, don't we? He has a nanny at the farm. Yeah.

Sean 6:43 He's 26, uh, multiple group two winner. And look back then he retired, you know, five or Oh six. And, you know, he's, I think a few thousand short of a million, which when John Tapp and I, um, when we did, he interviewed me, I think he said it's equivalent to like 3.3, 3.6 million now. And that's without all these pop-up races that I know he would have went well in. So, and it's rare, like horses, you know, he won from 1100 meters to 2300 meters.

George 7:09 You rarely see that nowadays, don't you? No. Yeah.

Sean 7:11 You just, as we know, you don't see that. And those old, and we bred him all the night that he was born. Uh, it's yeah, it's quite surreal, but he's happy. He's healthy. We've got him still at our farm. He's a beautiful nanny. Uh, I treat him as a nanny mare, but he's with one of our little cults now at one of our yearlings and getting bossed around. Um, but he's happy. He's, um, he's probably looking better than me, even when he was racing. Um, and yeah, it's, it's good. Things are looking well.

7:42 George's path from Ireland to bloodstock

George 7:42 Yeah, no. And as you said, like I've come on the team and, um, syndication was honestly, it wasn't ever something I thought I'd get involved in. Um, cause being from Ireland, it's very rare there. You'd only have a syndicate if you and your mates put it together. And, um, yeah. And so I came over about nine years ago and now end up going to New Zealand first. Um, I remember I was in, again, I had no ambition to travel. Um, I was in England at a sale one day, a yearling sale. And it was pissing down rain, like all the places sold out of waterproofs. And that was that bad, which you'd say is a regular day in Ireland and England. But, um, yeah, it was torrential rain this day. And some fella came up to me and, um, he said, do you want to go to New Zealand? And I said, what's the weather like? And he said, it's sunny and summer. And five days later I was on a plane. So I had all snowballed from there. I worked for a number of farms and, um, yeah, you get to know everyone. And I just thought the racing scene out here, the sales scene, like it's just, it's so inclusive. And every man, dog, cat, everyone has a share in the horse almost. And yeah.

Sean 8:54 And you've worked at some of the biggest farms, uh, in the country, in the world. And, and, and you've prepped some really good horses. Like if you name, name four horse, four of your favorite horses that you've prepped, like to give people an example. Uh, yeah.

George 9:08 So like, as you said, like you don't want to rattle on, but some of them well-known ones that people would know be like Home Affairs, Espiona recently. Um, yes, yes, yes. One in Everest, Vound the Clare, one in Melbourne. Cub. Cubious. Cubious. He was one of my favorite horses ever. And yeah, it just, it's such an incredible, um, industry and here, especially like the prize money, everything like that. And the thing I loved about it, why I didn't want to go home is it's just, if you're willing to have a go and put the work in, people will give you that opportunity. And that's kind of like how we came about too. Like obviously Corinne, the bloodstock was up and running. And, um, we just met at the sales from you going around looking at horses. And then we had a beer and that we always got along and, and then I came to a crossroads in my life. I actually got my residency in Australia and I was like, oh, I always wanted to get into bloodstock, but I didn't know how to venture into it. And we got chatting and you said, come out and see the farm. And yeah, one thing led to another and I've loved it.

Sean 10:09 And we basically just said, didn't we like, look, this is what we're looking for. Yeah. Um, if you're interested, otherwise we, we will be hiring someone, but, uh, if you can consider it, it'd be great. Uh, you can come to the sales because at the end of the day, uh, there's certain things that I'm missing for sure. Everyone, you can't say that you're perfect and having an extra set of eyes and ears and hands at the yearling sales is going to be priceless. Yeah.

George 10:35 And it's an industry that I think you can't be too, um, stubborn and set in your ways because it's ever evolving. And you're never done learning. I don't care who you are, whether you're, you've had 25 group one winners or you're just starting out, you will learn something new every day and it can come from the most unexpected spot as well. So yeah, that's pretty much, um, a bit, a little bit about our story, obviously, as we get into the podcast and that will, um,

Sean 11:02 You will learn more. Yeah. Yeah.

George 11:04 And you'll probably, um, stop listening, but no, so this episode, um, we've decided with the end of the spring racing campaign, we'll just do a bit of a review on that. Our, our thoughts and stuff. Um.

11:17 Previewing the Matt Dale episode

Sean 11:17 You know, how good was it? How's the horse is like, uh, one of our trainers, Matthew Dale, who's actually on the podcast, our next podcast, our next episode. So tuning for that, you know, like he won the Kosciuszko front page. How good was he?

George 11:29 Oh, incredible. Like, and for Maddie, you know, getting to know him as not just a trainer, but as a friend and that, like, and knowing his whole family would have been involved in that horse and everything. Like just, I cheered that horse. I was there on the day and I cheered that home as if we owned it or we had a share in it or that. Like, yeah, just, it is incredible. And to see, especially the Kosciuszko, that, how they've set that out, it's just regular people. Yeah.

Sean 12:00 And Matthew will go into detail of, um, you know, probably, or he hopefully goes into detail if he feels comfortable of, uh, the buildup and what was involved. Uh, did the, did the, did the preparation go to plan? Did it not go to plan? Did, did he have hurdles? Did he, there's so many things that the owners, um, and people out there, I think will love to hear. Yeah. And, um, look, great person, great family, great trainer. Uh, so, you know, he deserves all the success that he gets. And what far out, like the horse just not being disrespectful, but, um, it was on a different planet that day. Yeah. Jeez. Yeah.

George 12:36 Like it just, it blew them away. And I don't think anyone was expecting that. No.

12:43 Front Page wins the Kosciuszko

Sean 12:43 I think when Mogo Magic, um, unfortunately just stepped a bit slow, two furlongs in, I thought, person, I just thought, darn, this is race over. Cause I think if Mogo Magic sat OSL outside the leader and pressured front page just a little bit, it's probably a different scenario. But when Mogo just, unfortunately just stepped a bit slow, which looked that, that's, you know, at the end of the day, that's just racing. It's, um, no fault of the horse or anyone else that that's just racing. Um, whether it copped a check, I can't go into detail in, cause I didn't watch the Stewart's vision or anything, but I think two furlongs in, I thought race up, this is done race over. Um, they're going to have to have a good one. Like a very good horse is going to have to beat him today. Um, and when you're already probably at that, probably only three lengths off a group one, to be fair, like he's a, he's a, he's a proper group two horse in my opinion. And, and only a few lengths off a group one horse, isn't he?

George 13:40 Like, well, he showed it on champions day, didn't he? Like he was up against some of the best sprinters.

13:45 Satin Stiletto and I Am Unstoppable

Sean 13:45 And the best sprinter in the world. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, again, ran a huge, like a country horse to run against horses like that. Um, that's just fantastic. But, uh, you know, other horses that we can touch based on how's I am unstoppable. We've got the half sister sat in stiletto. That was a huge win for us. Yeah, definitely.

George 14:04 Obviously he didn't win the big race, but just to come second in the stallion making cool more race, like, and again, like, you know, we cheered that horse home. Like it's our own, we're invested in the sister and that, and it's great for all of our owners and everything cool. Like they, they've already not already, but they will get a return on their investment win, lose or draw. Cause she's obviously a very valuable filly. Yep. And there are things that we, with our experience, like we will go to sales and we'll do our homework and research. And that's what we're doing at the minute. A lot of our time is spent researching the sales coming up in January and that, and pedigrees and things so we can find those little things to, you know, make, make our clients money. And in other ways that isn't just racing, but yeah, it's no better time to get involved in race. Like you said, the cozy you've got, the Everest was on the same day. I was there on the day, mate. And the crowd there was incredible. Like I was just so happy. And luckily we were in the members area and the air con was on. And then after the girls dragged us around getting pictures all day, I said, I'm not moving from here. The bar queue isn't that bad and the air con's on and I'm staying here. But the Everest, like what a concept that has been. Like, would you say that has become the biggest race in Australia now?

15:20 Is the Everest bigger than the Melbourne Cup?

Sean 15:20 Oh, definitely. Like anyone that says it's not.

George 15:24 Bigger than the Melbourne Cup?

Sean 15:25 Yeah, without a doubt. Like the prize money, it's a group and even the likes of the best farms in the world now. Everyone knows it's got a group one status without a group one. Even on pedigree payload, look at yes, yes, yes. You know, look what he sold for. Everyone knows it's a group one. It'll eventually probably be classed as a group one, but proper race, proper horses and concept, fantastic, good for owners, public, people that aren't owners. People that don't even watch a horse all day are at the races and they haven't even seen a horse yet. It's just a good day out.

George 16:05 Well, it was amazing on the day as well, mate. And the Melbourne Cup, which I've gone on a bit of tour recently, I've done the Everest, the Golden Eagle and the Melbourne Cup without even… Well, I've been working. Yeah, you and yes. The perks of the job. No, I didn't even plan on half of it. And we had lyrical running at the Golden Eagle day and everything. But it was funny because they were there for that race. And then the crowd sort of like ventured out a bit after it. There was still a huge crowd there, but like there was 80,000 at the Melbourne Cup. And yeah, they're just there for that specific, those specific races. So to see that from the Australian nation, like the interest in it, like it is insane. Worldwide. Yeah, yeah. Worldwide.

16:47 Mr Brightside, Romantic Warrior and tough horses

Sean 16:47 And then you've got the likes of moving on to like Mr. Brightside, like what a freak of a horse he is and Alligator Blood. And like he's just, he must be so tough.

George 16:58 But these horses, they get such like cult followings behind them. And you've got all them…

Sean 17:04 And they've earned that too.

George 17:04 You see the races, mate, and they all have their hats on and everything, custom made hats. And yeah, just incredible like to see the nation…

Sean 17:12 I'm a romantic warrior. I stuck solid.

George 17:14 Yeah, you were on him. I said that.

Sean 17:16 I had a few critics along the way and I wasn't worried.

George 17:20 I'll admit I jumped ship after the first run. I just thought there was so much improvement that he had to make. Yeah. And he obviously made it. But I just thought Mr. Brightside had gone to another level this year. And you'd love to own a horse like him, wouldn't you, Mr. Brightside?

Sean 17:36 He's just a war horse, isn't he? These horses, I think people need to understand, these horses just don't come around like that often. It's very far and few between. But when you're involved in such a horse, which anyone can be, it's honestly the luck of the draw. And as soon as you purchase a share, you've got to be in it to win it. And you just never know what you've got.

18:01 Good horses can come from anywhere

George 18:01 Oh, but they can come from anywhere, can't they? You hear so many stories. Like Mr. Brightside, he didn't cost much at the sales. And earlier I said Vaughan Leclerc. Private eye. We sent Vaughan Leclerc to the sales and nobody wanted him. He passed in. So the owners raced him themselves. What's he running?

Sean 18:19 Four Melbourne Cups now.

George 18:21 Yeah, that was his fourth. Just incredible. Yeah, and he's won, I don't know how much prize.

Sean 18:25 And probably in career best form.

George 18:28 Yeah, he was great, this prep, wasn't he? He was very unlucky in Moonee Valley. Yep. Yeah, so just that, they're just honest, tough horses. And I remember the Moonee Valley race, we watched it. And I knew that horse on the inside was ahead of him. But knowing him, or sorry, on his outside, knowing him, he just, he did it in the Melbourne Cup. He got passed and he fought back and it was just the swooper down the outside that he didn't see coming. Like, they just have that heart, don't they? And they love their racing. They'll give 100%. And we have a couple of horses like that, man. And they're not on a level of Vaughan Leclerc. They will, whether they run third, fourth or whatever, they'll give you 100% every single time they go around. They're just honest horses.

19:16 Why where a horse places is not everything

Sean 19:16 Yeah, and for me and for us as a business, it's not where they place. It's, I think, what I, during this podcast, I want to, I guess, try and do my best and your best and our best to educate people along the way as well. Like, it's not where they run. You might have a horse run ninth but beat 1.8 in a great race. It's how they perform and how they run. It's not where they run. You can come ninth, but you walk away and go, wow, like, he went and, or she went enormous today. And trust me, there's a lot of bad days. Yeah. We have a lot, you know, that's just racing. You have more bad days than good days. So, but we make sure we enjoy the good ones. And moving on to, like, the two-year-old first season size, like, you know, they've just come out of the woodworks this year, haven't they? Yeah, yeah. Alabama Express.

George 20:13 Oh, yes, and he gone well. Genuinely, I'm not just going to say now because he's killing it, but I did really like his yearlings last year. I loved him. Yeah, I really liked him. I think I tried to talk a mate of mine into sending his mare there and that.

Sean 20:27 Yeah, we can't get in for that.

George 20:28 Well, it was his mare, so I was willing to take the race. So, I didn't send my own. No, like, he's a sire that he seems to get a winner every two-year-old race now that's run. He had another good one on the weekend. Blue Point. Blue Point's another one. He's been killing it in Europe and that. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. He's had a couple of ones. Probably Pierrata. It's a sort. Yeah, Pierrata has had that handy horse of Matt Lowry's Coleman.

Sean 20:51 Yeah, and James Harron has the handy one as well. Didn't it run third or second? Yeah. Was that in the Breeders' Plate?

George 20:57 Yeah, it was in …

Sean 20:59 It ran well anyway.

George 21:00 Yeah, I think he might have finished fourth or fifth, but he did. He had a good run. Like, as you said, again … It's a good horse. If you look into the run, yeah, but he's a good horse and he's had a few nice ones trialing and the word around him is pretty good. Is there any that, like, you think you thought a little bit more of that haven't done it yet or that might?

21:19 Stallions that take time to show

Sean 21:19 The Autumn Sun, for me, I've been … I think he … I think … I'm not going to sit here and diss any stallions or anything like that, but for me, I really thought that he'd probably do a bit more for now. But to be fair, I think, you know, his horses will get better with age. I think we all jump on the train.

George 21:39 Yeah, with his pedigree in that, like, I know the families quite well there because it's that Aga Khan family and I actually … One of the first jobs I got back home was working their breeding season at the Aga Khans and half of his horses, mate, when they were no … Not no good in the flat, but when he was … They were limited, they got sold to go jumping and they made group one jumping horses. Yeah. And they were highly sought after. So, they do take a bit of time, those horses. And it was rare that the Aga Khan ever had a two-year-old winner or even a runner.

Sean 22:10 They've got to be in the right hands, don't they? Yeah. They've got to go to the right trainers that want to be patient with them. And he's definitely a horse, I think. It's probably good from a buying point of view because you go to the sales next year and he's not throwing those early two-year-old types. And so, it brings the price down a lot. So, if you want one of those three-, four-year-old plus, like a so you think, generally speaking …

George 22:34 Well, it took him a few years to really get going and get the credit he deserved. Yeah.

Sean 22:38 And I think it's a fact that we're so quick to sack them, so quick. Yeah.

George 22:43 And there's plenty of stallions out there that they get plenty of winners and good winners, too.

Sean 22:50 Just bread and butters.

George 22:51 They're not commercial. They're not … Your song, Winnie Rupert. Pride of Dubai.

Sean 22:55 Pride of Dubai. Like, it's incredible. Look at your song. Like, he's not fashionable, but, like, I love him. What a stallion. Like, we've had a number of your songs that go well. So …

George 23:08 Oh, recently we had Lyrical Beauty. Yeah.

Sean 23:10 She looks like she's got some nice upside.

George 23:12 Yeah, she went back-to-back for Matt Dale. Yep, yep.

23:16 Plans for the podcast and listener stories

Sean 23:16 But, yeah, no, I think it'll be great hitting the ground at the Magic Millions come January. We'll keep it short. We just wanted to introduce the podcast, what we're about, what we're going to do moving forward. We're going to have people from the industry interviewed without the industry. And send through any funny stories and send through your worst and best beats, punting-wise, to george.kbloodstock.com.au. Email George. Doesn't matter how bad or how good it is. Flick it through to me.

George 23:48 The worst, the better, to be honest. The worst.

Sean 23:50 Yeah, the worst and the most rawest, the better. And just annoy George as much as you can. Just flick him. Even if you've got 10, flick him 10.

George 23:57 Yeah, I've got a junk folder set up for it.

Sean 24:00 And I guess our work starts literally as of this week for finding our next Malibu from the Magic Sale.

George 24:08 Yeah, yeah, and we've got some big plans and that that we'll unveil in the coming months. So, yeah, we've been working behind the scenes doing that people obviously don't get to see that side of it and that. But we're excited about them. Some people we might be working with and that that'll get announced in the next while. And, yeah, it's a really, it's my first year being on, I've always been on the selling side of it. So, on the buying side of it, I'm really excited. We're doing all our homework now into our pedigrees and our stats and everything like that. And that's just going to stand to us when we do hit the ground running, as you said, and we get to Magic Millions. And obviously there's other reasons I'm excited to get to the Magic Millions.

Sean 24:46 Not the Heineken.

George 24:48 No, the casinos and the beaches and that. It's the worst places.

Sean 24:53 It's a terrible place. Yeah, yeah. Tune in, like, subscribe, click, share, do whatever you do. It's fantastic to just share it around. We're going to give you out heaps of heaps of Kurrinda Bloodstock merch.

George 25:08 On the stories, mate, for the best story, after a bit of time when we get some in, we'll pick the best one. So make it really outlandish.

Sean 25:17 So every podcast we'll get some Kurrinda merch.

George 25:20 Yeah, yeah, and we'll send you out some merch. We've got plenty of brand new merch. Fan Fave do a fantastic job.

Sean 25:26 I've got some really good beats. Yeah. I can't enter, so it's all right.

George 25:31 What about wins? No comment. Not as many.

Sean 25:35 But, yep, that's it. That's what it is, guys. Raw and real podcast horse racing, non-horse racing. Watch it. Get involved. Email George and annoy him as much as you can.